Nisha felt her blood run white cold as she stared at the simple letters on the page, her heart pounding and mind racing. Her breathing was becoming short as her mind caught up with what was actually happening to her.

Eighty-seven percent??

How was she still here, completely unchanged and normal, if her personal likelihood was that high? How had she gone, through twenty four years of life never never having anything slightly supernatural happen to her? Sure, there was always a chance that the screenings were going to go wrong, test someone positive when they had no actually mutation or superhuman tendencies, but with modern day advancements in tests those chances were slim to none.

She hadn’t realized her hands were shaking until she tried to set the paper down on the smooth surface of the desk and noticed a visible tremor. The apathetic man simply sighed, ripping the paper from Nisha’s hands and quickly eyeing over the printed test results. He spared one second to glance away from the paper and look her up and down, raising an eyebrow in a very unbelieving expression. When he turned his eyes back to the paper he pulled a walkie talkie out of his pocket and began speaking into it.

Nisha felt like she was going to throw up.

If this was true, and she was as likely as the results said she was, what were they going to do with her? She had heard rumors, of people being locked up in prison, or forced into the military, but no one really knew how anyone got from point a of being tested, to point c of removal from society. What was point b?

She crouched around herself, clutching at the sides of her jacket as a way to find grounding as she took in shaky breaths. She closed her eyes, focusing simply on the way the ribbed fabric of the bottom seam of her hoodie felt under her fingers. She didn't realize how long she was sitting there, until she felt hands try to lift her up by her arms. 

She jolted it of her chair immediately, her heart racing, this time with adrenaline. A police officer stood, generally looking unimpressed. She seemed like she had done this several times before.

“Please, ma’am” the officer said. “We’re going to need you to come with us.”

Nisha looked up at the cop before closing her eyes again, dragging her hand down her face. Finally she sighed, standing up. “Alright” she replied. “I’ll come with you.”

She expected to be dragged away to some sort of lab in a location she wasn’t familiar with. She even expected to be transported in a van with a few other unfortunate souls, all trying to avoid eye contact with each other as awkward silence moved on for decades. Or so it felt.

What she didn’t expect was the handcuffs.

“Wha- I don’t..” She sputtered as soon as the cold metal was clamped around her wrists. She turned them over almost out of reflex, immediately inspecting her new binds. These handcuffs specifically were heavier than expected, and Nisha noticed what looked like a small….motherboard? Along the sides.

“It’s just a cautionary measure, ma’am.” The police officer said. Her tone was not unkind, but it wasn’t particularly compassionate either. Nisha realized this was the moment she went from being a person, to a simple number, or problem for someone else to deal with. 

She hadn’t expected to be all but dragged into a small room, placed in a small chair and have a mask pulled over her nose.

“What is this?” She asked, her voice gone brittle and her accent unknowingly thickening with fear. Her heart had been racing all throughout the van ride as she sat in silence and tried to ground herself. Having so many strangers around helped, in a strange way. It gave her a reason to try and calm down, to put on an impassive and nearly impossible to read mask.

Now however; her heart was pounding so fast she felt like her chest was either going to cave in or explode. It could leave, free itself from her confining skin and rib cage, and Nisha would be none the wiser. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to her today. Strong arms held down her thin and lanky ones, even though she knew struggle was useless.

If these people were going to kill her, then this is the way she was going to go.